Category Archives: Sociology

Here is H.H. Bruun, in his book Science, Values and Politics in Max Weber’s Methodology (1972) writing of how a true politician would conduct himself according to Weber:

…[T]he precondition which Weber establishes for action in conformity with the ethic of politics is the fundamental willingness to let oneself be guided in certain cases by the value axioms of other spheres than the political one. Only those who can have “Beruf zur Politik” who do not only have this “Beruf”, who in particular situations are able and willing to submit to other value systems.

This precondition again implies that the political ethic as defined by Weber does not only demand knowledge of the laws and regularities of the political sphere; in other words, the “true” politician must not only be aware of the teleological system
surrounding his political goal, but also of the axiological (value or ethical system) one.

But this awareness again destroys the possibility referred to above of a relative harmony inside the political sphere. The possibilities of axiological conflict which were in the first instance absorbed by the definition of power as an instrument of politics, are resuscitated by Weber’s demand that the politician should be aware of the relationship between political calculation of ends and means and those of the non-political value spheres.

Axiological value analysis becomes necessary to the politician. On the one hand, Weber’s description of the responsible ethic of conviction means a rejection of the pure ethic of conviction, where the axiological analysis is the only relevant one: the acceptance of the responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions demanded by the responsible ethic of conviction implies a knowledge of the consequences for which the responsibility is taken, i.e., a need for teleological value analysis.

A person committed to the responsible ethic of conviction, whether his actions be guided by the axioms of the political or of other value spheres, i.e., whether they be guided by the teleological or by the purely axiological considerations, should know the “cost” of these axioms (in the form of tensions arising in relation to other spheres).

He has to make it clear to himself what ethical (religious,aesthetic, etc.) norms he is violating by, for instance, declaring war in the name of (political) national interest; and conversely, he must know what political demands he neglects by refusing on (for instance) ethical grounds to declare war or to use force at all in the situation. Since he is a politician, it is natural to assume that his starting point is political, i.e., that he is striving to attain a supraindividual goal.

But even inside this chain of ends and means, he must constantly try to supplement the teleological relations, i.e., that he is not justified in assimilating the axiological system to the teleological one; this acknowledgment will force him to examine the intrinsic axiological value of the means, the side effects and the goal according to the value system or systems to which he also remains committed outside the political sphere; and finally, he must recognize that his knowledge cannot reach beyond a certain point: that the paradox of consequences attaches to both end and means.

Only after having elucidated all these points may he decide whether he can still accept working within the political sphere and submitting to its demands; only then can he take the responsibility for his decision and claim to have fulfilled the demands of the responsible ethic of conviction ( italics in the original, pp. 284-285)

Well, sounds like a Dooyeweerdian modal analysis of the intersection of the political with other spheres, right? (with some amendments because of sphere sovereignty)